Letters to the Editor: March 17, 2019

It refers to the media-reports that public-sector IDBI Bank will be considered as a private-sector bank after public-sector LIC of India gets 51 per cent controlling stake in the IDBI Bank. Undoubtedly, the IDBI Bank till now was not listed amongst other public-sector banks because earlier it was a government-owned Financial Institution and thus a public-authority. Also, the LIC of India as the public-sector autonomous body has its own style of professional functioning. There are also reports that the bank will be named as the LIC IDBI Bank.

Confusion must not be created about the IDBI Bank under control of LIC of India to be a private bank. The bank should be categorised as a premium public-sector bank which may provide fancy banking on lines of private-sector banks with higher service-charges but with five-starred facilities. The bank should have a simple name as LIC Bank with an exclusive facility of every branch having an exclusive counter for life-insurance needs where such a counter may function as a separate unit of LIC of India. The branches of this premium bank should also have additional facilities like the sale of stamp-papers, postal-services, general-insurance (public-sector), commemorative coin-sets and other such government-provided services under one roof.

Subhash Chandra Agrawal

Will the CM answer my questions?

Sad, very sad indeed! What is Rs 5 lakh today to compensate the family member of the dead while the injured get only Rs 50,000? How long will the money last for the family? What if the deceased was the only working member of the family? When will the money be given to the family member? It will take years for the family member to get the money. The family member will have to run from pillar to post in order to get the money. The BMC is to be blamed for the FOB collapse at Mumbai CSTM on March 15, as they cannot run the city. Where is our money going which we pay as taxes to the government? Will the Chief Minister answer my questions? Today, our lives are not secure. Any moment we may die? Did the people know that they were going to die that day?

Jubel D’Cruz

Step-by-step graphics instructions manual needed

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has recently launched a CIVIGIL app to gather feedback related to reporting Model Code of Conduct violations. The app has been enabled to report any feedback either directly or anonymously by a user through the photo/video upload option. Of late, it has now been observed that the app monitoring teams have been inundated by incorrect feedback reports, only leading to the ineffectiveness of the communication strategy as adopted by the ECI.

It is further given to understand that the CIVIGIL app doesn’t have any a graphically supported step-by-step instructions manual, to help a user better understand the features through technical/user document guide. It only has a list of FAQ questions, privacy policy, end user agreement and terms of service and isn’t much effective as an information guide to the user. It is further given to understand that no extensive effort has been made to create awareness for the app’s effective use through a step-by-step instructions manual/document but wide publicity has only been issued related to the mere launch announcement of CIVIGIL app.

The ECI should now strive to prepare a step-by-step graphic based instructions manual/document by releasing a technical/user guide. It should further strive to disseminate the same extensively through press releases, social media, websites and other communication channels. The move will only further help the citizens to contribute effectively to the feedback mechanism.

Varun SD

Standardise consumables in car-industry

The Union government should induce standardisation of the common accessories like tyres and batteries so that same parts may be used in different models of cars produced by various car manufacturers. It will heavily bring down the cost of consumables through their bumper production in extra large numbers in some limited sizes and specifications. It can be achieved by merging some nearing sizes and specifications. Such guidelines though also mentioned in auto-policy of Union government, are never followed in actual practice.

Too many variants of any car-model confuse customers. There may be just two variants apart from the third with automatic gears, one basic Lx for economy customers and the other Vx with all company-fitted extra accessories and luxuries for affording customers. There is no sense in having too many confusing variants like Lx, Lxi, Vx, Vxi for the same model. India being the biggest consumer-market amongst nations with a free economy, it has certainly power to dictate its consumer-friendly terms for global market-leaders collaborating car-manufacture in India.